With the recent announcement that Avenue Q will end its Tony-winning run at the Golden Theatre in September, we thought it a good time to check in with Stephanie D'Abruzzo, the singing actress who was Tony-nominated for creating the roles of Kate Monster/Lucy the Slut. "It's staggering to think that the show opened an entire first-grader's life ago," D'Abruzzo told Playbill.com. "The show has had a great run — about six years longer than most people thought it would have had — and certainly this closing is hardly the end. I am sure that we'll soon be seeing regional and college productions, and it's an honor to know we got that ball rolling so very many years ago."

About whether she had thought about returning to the show for its closing weeks, the actress and puppeteer said, "There were rumors of reuniting the original cast to close the show, but apparently they turned out to be just that, rumors. I never heard anything directly. It would have been great to bookend the run, but I'm really happy to be back at 59E59 this August doing the 'Summer Shorts' again. I had an absolute blast last year, and this year I actually get to do something where I don't have to sing! John [McCormack] and J.J. [Kandel] are great at gathering exceptional artists and quality people by creating these two rotating evenings. The piece I am in is incredibly short, perhaps ten minutes, and while I haven't met the playwright or the director, and I don't even know who my acting partner is yet, I trust the team and know it will be another fun summer." (Visit SummerShortsFestival.)

As for future plans, D'Abruzzo said that "in September it looks like I'll be part of a developmental reading for a new children's musical at the Kennedy Center based on Mo Willems' 'Knuffle Bunny' book. And tonight I'll just sit here thinking about Walter Cronkite."